Rainwater
by xxkoffeexx
Summary: Haru doesn’t like the rain because it messes up her hair. Yamamoto thinks otherwise.


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Rainwater

By _xxkoffeexx

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Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Background: Set sometime after the Vongola Rings and Guardians thing… but since there's the Future Arc, I have no idea where this story takes place. Very confusing. Let's call it a filler, eh?

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Miura Haru glared up at the sky, wishing those dark, grey clouds would stop its incessant raining and just _go__ away_ so that she could enjoy her picnic with Tsuna in peace. The clouds rebuffed her demands and instead spit raindrops into her eyes. To add insult to injury, in her attempt to wipe her eyes she lost her footing and slipped, falling hard on her bottom.

The wet, cold concrete seeped through her skirt, which she had picked out to wear specifically for this special day with Tsuna. Now it was thoroughly wet and dirty, completely inappropriate to wear out in public, nevertheless suitable for Tsuna's eyes.

"Hey! Are you all right?"

Thankfully he wasn't there to see it. Unfortunately, Yamamoto Takeshi was, and he was the _only_ one there to see it. Given, it wasn't as bad as, say, if Hibari Kyoya was her companion. Gokudera Hayato could go fall in a puddle of mud for all she cared.

But regardless of who her companion was, it didn't change the fact that it was getting extremely awkward. In fact, it was already awkward from the start.

Once again, Haru directed a wet glare up at those selfish clouds, wondering whose bright idea it was to arrange a picnic without even consulting the weather report.

Oh yeah. It was her.

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The weather was nice enough in the beginning. There were a few harmless clouds here and there, but nobody saw any reason to worry, least of all call off the picnic.

Haru and Kyoko thought it was a great idea to hold a picnic in the Namimori Park, to celebrate everybody's friendship of some sort (though on Haru's part it was just an excuse to get lovey-dovey with Tsuna). The plan was enough to prompt the two girls, along with Bianchi, Reborn, I-pin and Lambo, to go all out.

Kyoko invited Tsuna, Yamamoto, Gokudera, and Ryohei. (Kyoko wondered if they should invite Hibari as well, but that half-hearted thought was squashed immediately by the majority). Haru volunteered to pick the day, inadvertently leading to her own future misery.

Haru linked arms with Tsuna, much to the chagrin of Gokudera. She was in heaven.

That feeling lasted until they were about halfway to the park, when she felt something wet hit her nose. It hit her cheek and then the top of her head, and she realized it was raining.

Everybody realized this as well and stopped, unsure of what to do. Haru bit her lip desperately, hoping nobody would suggest going home, because that would be so horrible—

Ryohei took charge by pumping a fist in the air, "Oi, oi, this is nothing! What are a few measly drops of rain to us? We're going to enjoy our picnic to the _extreme_!" Everyone looked at him in surprise.

Then Kyoko smiled. "Onii-chan…"

Tsuna smiled as well, "You're right. We can't turn back now that we've come so far."

"All right! Since the Tenth said it, let's go!"

Haru held back a sniffle. She was never so thankful of Kyoko's overly-boisterous brother as she was at that very moment. When she and Tsuna got married, she would let Ryohei be the child's godfather and--

Until the few measly drops of rain turned into a shower and then a downright deluge immediately after his declaration.

"Cover the food!" ordered Bianchi to the people carrying them. I-pin and Lambo scurried around, until Kyoko gathered them up. Reborn was already on Bianchi's shoulder, and now he was snuggled in her arms.

Haru had only one arm free to carry her own homemade cookies, baked with love for Tsuna, but she wouldn't have moved to cover it anyways because of the shock she was in. "Wait--!" she began. But already everyone was milling around, running for cover. They were getting soaked.

"Tenth! Hurry!" Gokudera was tugging Tsuna away from Haru's limp hold. She blinked in realization, but the rain made it hard for her to see, nevertheless follow them. It seemed she was alone.

"This way!" Someone was calling to her. Blinking furiously and shielding her eyes, she spotted a pair of shoes in front of her. Without thinking, she followed them, whoever it was. All she cared about was getting out of the onslaught of rain.

They ran through the rain, down the road, past benches and bushes, until Haru thought she was going to either slip or collapse. She silently mourned for her lost chance to be with Tsuna, and cursed the weather for choosing today to turn the buckets on her.

_Stupid rain_. _Stupid, stupid rain_.

Suddenly, the shoes stopped, and she blinked when she realized the rain was no longer pounding on her. For a brief moment she hoped the rain had ceased, but then took in her surroundings. They were standing underneath the awning of an old storehouse—she realized with a start that it was the same storehouse located up the hill near Namimori Park.

"Ahaha, that was really fun! I thought we were going to drown for a minute!" Yamamoto laughed as he stood beside her, out of breath but not panting like she was. Water made his normally spiky hair flatten on his head, and beads of rain hung on his dark strands, shaking as he laughed.

She was too busy catching her breath to reply, so she just stared at him. She had followed Yamamoto all the way here without even knowing who it was. They were both dripping wet and taking shelter under the same awning. It was only the two of them together. Alone.

Yes. It was very awkward indeed.

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She shivered once, and then stopped herself. It wouldn't do if she got cold now. Only five minutes had passed by and the rain showed no sign of letting up. In fact, it fell even harder, accompanied by the chilling wind. She wanted to curl into a ball and sleep, but the knowledge that it wouldn't be wise, topped with the painful awareness that her bottom was soaked and muddy thanks to her earlier slip, stopped her.

_Hang in there… Haru! _

She looked at her cell phone miserably, wondering how they had no reception. They had tried opening the rusty door of the storehouse, but the old lock stayed firm and didn't budge an inch. She thought sourly about the baseball player's 'strength,' but ended that thought as well. It was mostly her fault they were stuck out here in the rain anyways.

They were helpless until the shower stopped and there was little they could do about it, unless they decided to run a mile or so in the pouring rain and catch pneumonia as bonus. Haru actually considered this seriously, until Yamamoto suggested it out loud as a joke.

Where was Tsuna, she wondered, looking up at the dark sky. Most likely he was with Gokudera and a few others. Perhaps—and she tried not to panic—everybody was together except for them. Now _that_ was an awkward situation. The implication of such a set up was not lost on her, and she worried about what Tsuna would think if he knew she had been all alone with Yamamoto.

But no, she corrected herself. Yamamoto was not that kind of person, and Tsuna knew that best. He trusted the baseball player, so she would also trust him.

And speaking of her companion… he was unusually silent. She turned to look at him, expecting him to be asleep and blinked in surprise.

He wasn't asleep as she'd thought, but rather wide awake and gazing out across the rain, with eyes that were seeing yet unseeing. He had a pensive, almost peaceful expression, and she was taken aback by how suddenly mature and older his side profile looked. The carefree, laughing Yamamoto was no more. In his place was a stranger with an experienced aura, the same one she often felt when she saw Tsuna standing up for his friends. Their eyes held the same light.

Then she took a closer look and spotted a hint of a smile on his face. It shocked her to the core.

_Does he… actually_ like _rain?_

No, that was impossible. He was a baseball player, and to play baseball in this kind of weather was like a curse. But she couldn't shake off the image of his smile, and so she continued to watch him watch the rain.

His hair, she thought absently, was quite long when it wasn't spiked. Not as long as Gokudera's, or Tsuna's (though she never saw his hair not-spiked), but it was enough to complete the transformation into the mature Yamamoto she saw now…

_Wait._

Wait. What was she doing? How could she be wasting her time staring at Yamamoto when there were other more important things to think about? Her hands flew up to her head.

…Such as her hair. Her _hair_.

It was sopping wet, of course, and in a worse state than her skirt. Her beautiful hair, which was her _number one_ charm point, was ruined by the rain.

Her nervousness crumbled away in the face of this new calamity (she was nervous…?) and she spun around to face him, "Hahi! My hair is messy! It's ruined! My hair…!" He didn't turn. Her eyes narrowed. "Yamamoto-san!"

He started and then turned to look at her, not expecting to see Haru only inches from his face. "Eh? What is it?"

"Look at me! _Look at __Haru's__ hair_!" It was not difficult to look at it, since she practically shoved it in his face.

"A-Ah." He was obviously bemused. "Eh heh. What about your hair?"

"It's ruined! Haru's hair is messy from the rain!" she wailed, peering up at him through dripping locks. "How does my hair look, Yamamoto-san?"

"Beautiful."

"Eh?" She blinked up at him, wondering if she heard wrong. "E...Eh?"

His eyes were distant. "It's beautiful. The rain." He turned his gaze from her out towards the rain, and the pensive look returned.

"Oh, the rain," she sighed. Her hands dropped and she asked slowly, "Does Yamamoto-san like the rain?"

There was that smile. "Yeah."

"I see." She didn't know what else to say, since it was obvious he didn't know what he was talking about. Still, it took a while to bring her heartbeat back to its normal tempo. A compliment like that, no matter who it was from, would have been flattering. She was _not_ disappointed that he meant the rain was beautiful, not her.

A sudden breeze made her shiver violently, and this time she couldn't stop it. Even mature Yamamoto noticed and broke out of his rain-gazing trance to ask her, "Are you cold? Why didn't you say so?" She was too busy shivering to answer, and she smiled at him when he took off his jacket and covered her with it. It was a wet jacket, but a jacket nevertheless.

_It smells like grass… and baseball? _

Now that she was slightly warmer, she decided it wasn't so bad being stuck out here in the rain alone with Yamamoto, under the awning of an abandoned storehouse. Tsuna was still in her thoughts, but to a degree lesser than before. Shyly, she asked, "Yamamoto-san, why is the rain beautiful?" She wondered why the sudden bashfulness. He was only Yamamoto Takeshi, Tsuna's close friend and baseball maniac, and a generally nice guy who did not match her type at all—

"Hm? Oh." His old laugh came back, and she felt relieved. "I guess… because the rain has so many different forms. Never staying in one shape, it can be your friend one moment, and then your enemy the next." He kept smiling, but a different expression entered his eyes again, reminding her of the look Tsuna and even Gokudera had when they suddenly ran off with Reborn for some 'urgent business.' An expression that made her feel slightly alienated. As if she was no longer a part of their world anymore. He continued, "It can change into something good and bad." She stared up at him.

_Why does his tone make me feel sad?__ Is he hiding something deep inside...?_

Haru was silent for a minute. Then she said, "You mean like, the rain can be good when you're inside, drinking coffee and curled up in a warm futon while reading a romance novel—but it can be bad if you're outside in cold clothes and you're stuck under the roof of an old, stinky shack and there's no reception?"

He blinked, and then laughed again, becoming carefree Yamamoto once more. "Yeah, exactly like that!" She laughed too.

Reaching down, she picked up the small bundle of cookies she had been saving for Tsuna and held them up. "Are you hungry yet?"

He looked pleasantly surprised, "Oh, nice! I didn't know we had any food, so I thought we had to wait until the rain stopped."

She was originally going to do just that, but now didn't seem like a bad time to eat them, even if Tsuna wasn't there. She didn't mind sharing with Yamamoto. They dug into the bag and bit into the cookies. She glanced eagerly at him as he chewed, "So? What do you think? How are they?"

A pause. "Beautiful."

"...Hahi?"

Yamamoto was gazing out at the rain again. She sighed and tried not to smack her forehead.

"Yamamoto-san, I think this rain has brainwashed you." But she smiled and turned to gaze out at the rain as well, clutching his jacket.

_How beautiful._

END

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A/N: That's right, the rain is beautiful. XD And the title? Yeah. Has no double meaning whatsoever. I just thought it sounded cool.

It might just be all in my head, but I've been noticing LOTS of Haru-Yamamoto scenes in both the anime and the manga of the series. Sound faulty? Probably. I've only watched the series a few times (until the recent episode) and the manga several times. Or, like I mentioned, it might just be all in my head.

(Though it might not be all in my head if one watches episode 19 and reads chapter 143, among several others)

I need not mention that this pairing is pure speculation and mostly hopeful thinking on my part. It's just… I've noticed only yaoi pairings for this awesome series and I'm like, 'wth, aren't there any girls??'… And forgive me if the characters are weird. They're probably weird. Eh.

Yeah. So. Here's my first KHR fic, thrown into the wild, wild world of fanfiction. XD

Thank you very much for taking time to read! I hope it was worth your while.

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